


Little Wonders

by Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Dad! Diego, F/M, they are in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 17,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22872421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell/pseuds/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell
Summary: It is April Fourth, 2013, at six forty seven PM and Diego Hargreeves is a father.
Relationships: Diego & The Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Grace Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch
Comments: 119
Kudos: 355





	1. Birth

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Spark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20289847) by [Supernaturally_screwed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supernaturally_screwed/pseuds/Supernaturally_screwed). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've wanted to write this fic for AGES now and just got the inspiration to do so today!! Major thanks goes to Katie, the author of the Spark, for her line in chapter six of her fic that inspired me!!!!

It’s interesting to Her, how the slightest things can divert humans off their intended course, and how they don’t even seem to realize it. Oh, they see it’s impact on _other_ things (example: the butterfly effect, and their whole philosophy on that), but Her creations are too blind to see when it occurs in their own lives. 

They’re so _stupid,_ She thinks affectionately. But it’s a good thing that they are, in this case. A small group of humans thought they were smarter than Her- thought they knew Her will- thought to make themselves like Her, to play games with the timestream. They _claimed_ they were keeping it intact, that their intentions were benevolent, but She knew what it was- Arrogance. A power trip. 

She knew that something had to be done. So She did what She did best- She _created._ Forty-three special children, for forty-three women, with forty-three destinies. She watched, and She hoped it would be enough. 

When Reginald began adopting the children, She raised Her eyebrows. When Five ran away, got himself stuck in the Apocalypse (that he was meant to help _prevent),_ She frowned. When Ben died and everything fell apart, She scowled. 

She watched as Her creations drifted away- one to the moon, one to the law, one to stardom. One to drugs and one to violins, to a quiet buildup of rage that would someday be catastrophic. 

If things continued this way, then She knew that the ending would be exactly the same- a family destroyed, a world in ruins. She would _not_ let this stand. 

So, She began to think. What She had done last time would have worked, so maybe it could be repeated. Not on as large a scale- just one woman. Just one child. 

She had the perfect idea for it. 

* * *

Eudora Patch is one conflicted woman. 

She loves the law. She loves the work she does. She can’t _wait_ until she graduates the police academy. 

Her boyfriend, though- he doesn’t seem to have the same respect for it that she does. He’s baffled by anything to do with things like warrants and the chain of command. And she’s trying to be patient with him, she _really_ is, but she has no idea why its so difficult for him to pick up on. 

It’s lead to quite a few arguments between the two of them- screaming matches that start out as discussions and gradually descend into passionate yelling, quiet bickering during duty so that they don’t get in trouble that turns into raised voices the minute enough backs are turned. 

Her boyfriend drives her up the wall sometimes, and her other friends in the police academy sometimes ask why she doesn’t break it off. None of them even _like_ Diego Hargreeves. 

But here’s the thing- Patch _loves_ Diego. She loves the way he calls her Dora because he knows she hates her full name, loves how he calls her _Eudora_ when he wants to rile her up, which leads to them play-wrestling on the couch. Loves the way he whispers her last name when they’re on the job together and he’s seen something that shakes him up, like it’s a prayer, or a life raft keeping him afloat. She loves knowing that he considers her a steady presence in his life. 

She loves the way that he _cares_ about people- he may not respect the more technical aspects of the law, but she sees this _fire_ in his eyes, this real and serious urge to help the world around him grow and flourish. 

She loves Diego so much it feels like her heart is going to burst. Sometimes she just worries that it’s not going to be enough- like right now. 

“I don’t need therapy, _Eudora.”_ He’s snapping, and there is a lump in her throat because she’s sad for him and so, so angry. 

“Yes, you _do,_ Diego!” She’s snapping at him. “I _know_ you, okay? I know when things are wrong. And, and I know you don’t want to talk to me about it- and that’s okay! I don’t need to know anything about your shitty dad to know that I’m gonna beat the hell out of him if I ever see him!”

“If you don’t need to know about it, then _what’s the problem?”_ He asks, and she looks at him for a second to see if he’s serious. He is. He genuinely has no idea why she’s so worked up about this, so she stops yelling and takes a deep breath.

“You need _help.”_ She says quietly. “I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night, and you’re lying there crying in your sleep. The most random things trigger you, and I don’t know how to help you. And- and I want to be able to. But the only way I can do that is if you talk to someone about your trauma. They can give you coping mechanisms, they can help you process the things that fucker did and-”

A small jolt of pain goes through her. She swallows, the pain she’s feeling right now and the worry she has for Diego making her randomly, inexplicably close to tears where she wasn’t just a moment ago. 

Diego’s face softens, as does his voice. Times like this are rare, where all the anger just drains out of the both of them at once. He holds his arms out and she walks right into them, hugging him tightly. 

“I just love you, so much.” She says finally. “I don’t want you to have to go through that.” 

She can feel his lips on her head, pressing a soft kiss to her hair. 

“I love you, too.” He whispers finally. It always takes him a while to say it- always so scared to admit it, so nervous that as soon as he admits any kind of weakness it will be punished. “But, Dora, you don’t need to w- worry about m-m-”

He cuts off, sighing frustratedly at himself. He doesn’t know how to express this- that he’s scared of talking about his childhood. Of slicing open old wounds that he carefully sewed shut years ago. He opens his mouth to try and articulate that again, but-

But Eudora stumbles away from him, gasping, an expression of pain and shock on her face. He’s confused, wondering what he did- and he registers that they’re at her house, that he doesn’t have any weapons on him. It couldn’t have been him. So he’s scanning her for visible injuries, listening for who could have possibly _hurt her while she was in his arms-_

And then he sees it, and he feels like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. Her hands dart to her stomach- suddenly, painfully swollen, blood seeping through her shirt where the skin stretched and tore all at once. 

Eudora wasn’t pregnant even thirty seconds ago and now she’s about to give birth. 

“I’ll call the hospital,” He blurts out, about to head to the phone, but her hand darts out to catch his wrist and squeeze. 

“No hospitals,” She gasps, and he blinks. “Your father.”

_Shit._ Of course she wouldn’t want him to find out- they had literally _just_ been having an argument over the trauma he had inflicted on Diego. She groans, a long and pained sound, and Diego runs through what he knows of childbirth from the week Klaus stayed with him and made him binge Call the Midwife. 

He’s got to move fast, he knows that, because there’s some kind of fluid on the floor underneath her that he thinks must be her water breaking, and _holy fuck he’s going to be a father._

He takes a couple of deep breaths, forces the panic down as deep as he can, and gets to work. He strips Eudora’s bed down because bedspreads are _expensive_ and he doesn’t want her to have to replace it before he lays down a bunch of garbage bags, and helps her onto it after she manages to kick out of her yoga pants, grimacing when they come away stained with blood.

“I _liked_ these pants,” She mutters, and he chokes on a laugh as she lies down, grimacing. 

“I’ll buy you a new pair.” He promises, squeezing her hand as she groans again. “You doing okay?”

She looks at him as though he’s absolutely stupid, and he winces, because he kind of feels like he is. 

“I’m having a baby that I wasn’t even expecting,” She snaps, “I’m just _peachy.”_

“Sorry,” He mumbles, and then, “ _Peachy?_ Who says peachy?”

“I’m in _labor!_ Shut the fuck up!” She shouts, but she’s half- laughing, and for a moment everything is okay. 

Then she arches up off the bed, crying out and half- crushing Diego’s hand. 

The next few hours are kind of a blur, of her crying out, of Diego ocassionally checking between her legs to see if the baby is close to coming, oh, shit, a baby, _his_ _baby-_

And then it’s done. He checks the clock- 6:47 PM on April 4. The baby is in his arms, and he’s using one of the towels he collected to gently wipe the blood off of her face. 

“It’s a girl.” He says quietly and Eudora half-sobs, making grabby hands. He gently lowers the baby into her arms. She looks down at the baby, and then up at him.

She’s sweaty, strands of hair escaping her ponytail and sticking to her face, and silent tears are running down her face. She’s beautiful. So Diego does the only rational thing he can do- he kisses her.

And then, the adrenaline wearing off, he bursts into tears. Eudora shifts the baby into one arm, slipping the other arm around Diego. She’s crying too, absolutely bawling. 

“What are we going to do?” Diego asks, once he can speak without sobbing or stuttering. Its such a big question, and he means a dozen different things by it, because he’s so _lost._ But somehow, she understands him, because she always does. Eudora knows him more than he knows himself. 

“I want to keep her,” She says, after a moment. “It’s going to change a lot of things, but I’m going to keep her.” 

She looks up to him, as if to challenge him, and he pulls himself down to kiss her. 

“Dora,” He says softly after a moment, “ _We’re_ going to keep her.”

The challenge in her eyes softens, and then it turns into a smile. And then a bright, beaming grin. 

“We’re a _family_ now.” She says.

There’s still so much questions. There’s so many things to do- they need to name her, they need to get baby supplies, they need to avoid Reginald finding out. He needs to figure out if he can trust any of his siblings. He needs to figure out how he can be a dad. 

But they’re a family now. And as much as Patch knows him, he knows her too. He knows and loves Eudora Patch. 

And she is probably the absolute _strongest_ woman he knows. If anyone can get through this together, it’s the two of them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you have name ideas for their baby please let me know because i have no clue !!!!!!


	2. Chapter 2

The next few days are busy as  _ hell.  _

The first thing in the morning, he hauls Dora and Baby Patch (because there is  _ no way  _ he is letting this baby have any name associated with his father) to the hospital, and gets their daughter’s existence legalized. 

He has to fight back tears every time he thinks about it. Their daughter. Their  _ family.  _ He still can’t believe it- he’s twenty four and he’s got a family. It feels like so much more than he thought he would get, and he tells Dora so on their way out to the car. She pauses to look up at him as she cradles the baby, swaddled in one of her old, soft shirts she uses as pajamas sometimes.

“Diego,” She says softly, one hand coming up to cup his cheek, “You know you deserve this, right?”

He… has to take a minute afterwards. When he gets in the car, he presses a kiss to the back of Eudora’s hand, and she smiles at him softly. 

“I’ve been thinking,” She says as he starts the car. “We need to have a name for her by the time we get there.”

Diego freezes, thinking about it while he maneuvers out of their parking lot. 

“I have some ideas, but I want your input,” She says, and he relaxes. Giving his opinion is easy enough. She starts going down the list when he nods. “Holly, Emma, Olivia, Myra, Leah-”

“Like in Twilight?” He asks , and then immediately bites his lip when she gives him a  _ look.  _ “Listen, Allison and Vanya talked about those  _ constantly,  _ you can’t blame me for picking some pieces up-”

“Whatever you say,” She assures him, but he just waits for her to speak. There’s a little turn in the corner of her lips that she gets whenever she’s about to tease him. It’s equal parts endearing and annoying. Sure enough, she continues after about a half a minute. “Were you on Team Edward, or Team Jacob?”

He scowls at her playfully, but she just laughs and it makes him smile. 

“Can we go on reading the names, please?” He asks, and thank  _ God,  _ she relents, because he didn’t want to dive into just how much he remembered of it. 

“Emily, Mia, Abigail, Darcy-”

She stops suddenly, just falls quiet, pursing her lips. 

“I like that one.” Diego says. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He says, and watches her break into a smile. “It just feels right. Plus, it sounds nice- Darcy, Dora, and Diego.”

Her smile grows a little, and she kisses him as soon as he helps her out of the car in the hospital parking lot. 

Darcy’s checkup goes well, the Doctor incredulous that  _ Diego,  _ rough as he looks, was able to help manage it. She’s in perfect health, but she doesn’t like the doctor, fussing as she’s laid on the scales and measured and everything else. 

When the time for the birth certificate form comes along, Dora hums at it, frowning slightly. 

“Patch or Patch-Hargreeves?” She asks him, clicking the pen, and he scoffs. 

“Patch,” He answers. “I don’t want her to be stuck with a name I don’t even want.”

She nods, and a moment later shows him the birth certificate for approval. 

_ Darcy Grace Patch,  _ it reads, with  _ Eudora Patch  _ on the mother line and  _ Diego Hargreeves  _ on the father line. He gets ridiculously emotional, choking up and taking a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose and  _ breathe.  _

“It’s perfect.” He says, and she hands it off with a grin. 

* * *

After the hospital visit, they need to get some typical baby things. Diego notices though, how pale and exhausted Dora looks, and he remembers how exhausted he always was after missions. He assumes giving birth has to be at  _ least  _ as exhausting as that, if not more so.

So he offers to go inside and face time Dora so she’s still involved in picking out baby onesies and the like, an offer which she gratefully accepts. He’s grateful she accepted it, because he has  _ no  _ idea whatsoever how to take care of a baby or what to buy.

But damn it, he’s going to learn. 

He deliberates with her over what formula to get and carefully selects that, and then picks out a bottle with various lids just in case those don’t work. He gets a pack of pacifiers, just because he has a  _ very  _ faint recollection that they’re useful for babies, and then its on to diapers. 

When he swings by the onesie area, he lets Dora choose most of them. The only one he chooses is a tiny white one with a pair of handcuffs on it. It says  _ I’m gonna get booked for resisting a rest  _ on it. He  _ hates  _ most puns, but he buys it anyways because of the loud groan Dora makes and the fact that if Klaus knew about Darcy he’d absolutely steal a bunch of onesies with shitty puns on them, and pretend that he bought them. 

Plus, he’s  _ just  _ sleep deprived enough that it makes him  _ cackle  _ when he shows it to her on the camera. 

They decide to hold off on cribs and strollers until Dora is actually up to walking around for a longer time and able to be a more interactive part of things.

When he gets back in the car, the first onesie Dora puts Darcy in is the one with the handcuffs on it.

* * *

After that, they have to drop by the station to explain what’s going on. The normal greetings turn into general chaos when people see the baby in Dora’s arms, and they’re quickly rushed back to the captains office, where he’s just bewildered and taken aback. 

When they manage to get the full story articulated, he sighs.

“Always the weird shit with you, Hargreeves. I assume you’re both going to want some leave?” He asks, and they nod. “Okay. Get working on the forms for that. I’ll make sure they’re moved through without too much fuss. In the meantime, use your sick days. Patch, make sure you keep those cuts clean, they look like shit.”

Dora nods, and Diego helps her to her feet. 

“Hargreeves. Is the kid… y’know, like you?”

Diego freezes and looks at Dora, her eyes just as wide as his. They hadn’t even  _ thought  _ of it yet. 

“Not that I know of, sir.” He answers honestly after a moment. 

“Keep it secret if she does.” The Captain says, and Diego snorts, because he didn’t need to be told that at all. “The last thing we need is your father releasing a new wave of superpowered vigilante kids on the city.”

“Believe me, sir.” Diego says, dryly, “If I have my way he’s not even going to know she exists.” 

The Captain stares him down for a minute.

“That’s the first smart thing I’ve heard you say in a long time.” He says, and they leave. 

* * *

When they get home, Diego admits he has a bit of a crisis over it. 

“Dora,” He says finally, “If she has powers-”

“I know.” Dora says, soft and calming, and he bites down on his lip,  _ hard.  _

“I don’t want her to go through what I did.” He says finally, and watches as she nods. “The shit my father did- the thought of any of my training happening to her-  _ fuck.  _ It makes me so angry, I c-c-could  _ kill  _ him. R-Right now. And I wouldn’t regret a m-m-moment of it.”

“You’d better not,” Dora says, and he looks over a bit incredulously. “I’ve been wanting to kick his ass for  _ years.  _ If you kill him before I get the chance to I’m gonna be  _ pissed.  _ “

It makes him laugh- a dry, almost sob of a laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. 

“Come here.” She says, holding out the arm that’s not holding Darcy, and he relents, sitting on the bed next to her. “If Darcy has powers, we’ll deal with it. We’ll teach her-  _ teach,  _ not train- to control it, in a better way than your father ever would. We’ll do our best not to let him find out she’s even here, and if he even  _ thinks  _ about taking her, I give you full permission to get your knives.”

Diego nods, shaking when she leans into him, wrapping her free arm around him. 

“I love you,” She whispers, leaning up to kiss him, and he smiles against her lips. 

“Love you more,” He mumbles, softly. 


	3. Chapter 3

Diego  _ loves  _ being a dad. It’s literally the best thing that has ever happened to him, with the exception of meeting Dora. 

At the same time, though, he’s so scared,  _ all the time.  _ He rushes home from the police station as fast as he can when his shift is done, to make sure that Dora- who’s still on leave- and the baby are still there. He’s started checking his rearview mirrors to make sure he isn’t being tailed on the way home. It makes him feel like an idiot. 

The moment he starts wondering if he needs to check Dora’s house for cameras, he realizes he’s  _ maybe  _ spiraling back into unhealthy habits. 

So he decides he needs to go to therapy. 

The first therapist is stereotypical “and how did that make you feel”, cloyingly sweet, and Diego absolutely can’t stand her. He doesn’t go back for a second appointment. The second therapist apparently had a relative that got busted by the Academy, so he asks Diego to leave in order to avoid what he cites as “a conflict of interest”.

Diego goes home so that Dora can get out of the house for a while, because he  _ knows  _ she has to get stir crazy at times, and he almost thinks about not trying to find someone else. Just going on with his life, coping the same way he always has. 

And then he goes into their room, both to change into more comfortable clothes and to check on Darcy. She’s just lying there in bed, waving her hands and kicking her little feet idly. She’s probably not even aware that she can control that yet.

Once he’s in a more comfortable shirt, he moves to lift her out of the crib. She starts cooing when she sees him, just tiny noises, and her little toothless smile that melts him faster than he can even blink. He’s wrapped around her tiny fingers already and he couldn’t care less.

He picks her up carefully, nestling her head in his elbow.

“Hey, Darcy, sweetie.” He whispers, and grins when she smiles more. He and Dora figured out last week that she’s started to recognize their voices and it’s the sweetest thing  _ ever.  _ “You having a good day? Ready for a snack yet?”

He looks at the clock and sure enough, it’s just about time to feed her, so he carries her downstairs and starts prepping the bottle for her. 

She’s such a light weight in his arms, and when he looks down at her she’s looking up at him, her dark eyes content as she sucks on her pacifier. 

Diego thinks about how much he loves his daughter and his girlfriend. If someone has told him this was where he would be two months ago, he wouldn’t have believed them. He’s amazed at how much better he’s been doing since Darcy’s birth- a good sixty percent of his impulsive decisions are curbed by thinking about how they would affect her, and another thirty percent knocked down because of Dora and the common sense she’s managed to wrangle into his head. 

He thinks about last night- he had had a nightmare. The glass tank, the chill of the water surrounding him, the crushing pressure on his chest. Beating at the glass, pleading wordlessly with his father, until Dora had shaken him awake because he was crying in his sleep. Darcy had been shrieking in the crib, startled from her sleep by the noise.

And his resolve to go without therapy crumbles, looking down at her. He doesn’t want her to go through the same shit he did, sure, but he doesn’t even want her to go through how it affects him still. 

So he keeps looking.

* * *

His third therapist is a no-nonsense, snarky woman in her forties named Chris. She doesn’t put up with him trying to evade the topics, and scowls every time he says something self- deprecating. 

She’s  _ exactly  _ what he needs. 

The next time he mentions almost being afraid that he’ll wake up and all of this will have been a dream, she hums thoughtfully. 

“Normally I’d tell you that you should do something to solidify the fact that it’s real in your mind, to make it more permanent, but having a kid is a pretty permanent thing.” She says, and then makes a couple smaller suggestions- simple things like asking for reassurance, making a journal (that one’s an absolute no; Vanya had tried that as a teenager. Allison in one of her more petty moments had stolen it and read it cover to cover.) Other little things. 

It starts Diego thinking. 

* * *

He moves in with Dora, because she brings it up one night. And he agrees- she inherited the house, he’s moved half of his stuff there anyways, and he never goes back to the little boiler room these days. Besides that it’s stupid as fuck to “officially” live in two separate places when he has a daughter. 

So, on the next day that they both have off, he drives over to the gym with a couple boxes and a couple of rolls of packing tape. 

When he opens the door and Klaus is fast asleep on the mattress, he can’t help the little yelp he makes. Klaus has always been a light sleeper, so he jolts awake and blinks at him. 

“I was  _ wondering  _ where you were.” He says in an almost accusing tone of voice. “I’ve been here for two days and no sign of you.”

Diego sighs. 

“You know where I work.” He points out, and Klaus slaps a hand to his chest, mock incredulity on his face. 

“I’m not gonna waltz into the place that arrests me every couple of months, Diego.” He answers. “Where have you been anyways?”

Diego tosses one of the boxes on the floor and starts looking for things that he actually cares about enough to move to Dora’s. The cross stitch his mom gave him is the first thing he puts in. 

“I’m moving in with my girlfriend,” He says casually, though his heart is in his throat and his mind is racing. He knows Klaus would never tell their dad, but can he trust that Reginald isn’t monitoring Klaus? Can he trust that he’s safe enough to invite him to meet his niece?

“A  _ girlfriend?  _ Tell me  _ everything.”  _ Klaus demands, bouncing up. “Is she pretty? Is she tough? What’s her name? Are you in  _ loooove?”  _

“Her name is Eudora Patch, but I call her Dora. You can call her Patch.” He says, smiling despite himself as he finds a couple more keepsakes- an old quilt that Ben had made him, a worn out scrapbook Vanya had made from ages twelve to seventeen and gave personalized copies out to each one of them. “She’s at  _ least  _ as tough as Allison was, and she’s absolutely gorgeous.” 

He hesitates for just a moment (ever aware of the price of weakness), and then manages a smile. “And of course I love her. If you met her you’d be able to tell why right off the bat.”

“Can I? Meet her?” He asks, then pouts when Diego freezes. “C’mon! I just got out of rehab, and I’m _still_ sober because you weren’t around to get me food so I had to spend my stash on that! _Please_?”

Diego takes a deep breath, reminds himself of all the conversations he’s had with Dora over the last few months, all the meltdowns he had worrying about Darcy’s safety. 

“I’ll call her and see if she’s not too busy right now,” He says, and hopes it will turn out okay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUN UNCLE KLAUS
> 
> i'm making this up as i go along i hope it makes some form of sense to y'all


	4. Chapter 4

Dora is understandably anxious about it. Diego can’t blame her- his heart is in his throat just thinking about it. When he calls her, he heads into the office upstairs in the gym and closes the door before he dials, leaving Klaus half awake and confused on the bed downstairs.

“Klaus wants to meet you,” He blurts out as soon as she picks up. “He doesn’t know about Darcy.”

“ _ Shit _ .” She says. “What did you tell him??”

“I said I’d call and ask you!”

“Well, what do we do?” She asks, and he can hear shuffling in the background, like she’s shifting the phone to her other ear. “Do you think we can trust Klaus?”

Diego’s first instinct is to snap  _ of course, he’s my brother.  _ To defend him. And then he realizes what Eudora is actually saying-  _ can we trust that he’s not being watched?  _ , and that she probably didn’t want to phrase it like that to avoid triggering some sort of attack. 

So he takes a deep breath, and he thinks, tries to get himself to be rational and not let the anxiety overwhelm him. 

“Klaus,” he says slowly, shaping the words in his mind first, “Is a drug addict. That suppresses his powers. Our dad hasn’t bothered to give him attention like… since Ben died. I think, if I were to tell any of my siblings, then he’d be the safest one.”

And that surprises him. He realizes after its out of his mouth that it’s  _ true-  _ Luther hasn’t realized how awful Reginald is yet, Allison is too high profile and also can’t keep her mouth shut, and Vanya probably gets checked on often by Pogo- he was always fond of her. So that just leaves Klaus. 

Dora is silent for a few moments, and he can hear her taking a deep breath to keep calm. 

“I trust you.” She says finally. “And I know how much you miss your siblings, don’t try and deny it. You’re a softie at heart.”

And  _ God,  _ he really is, because he’s standing in his ex landlord’s office about to cry just because his girlfriend said that she could trust him. 

“Bring Klaus over.” She says gently, “as long as he’s sober. I would love for him to meet his niece, and we can order pizza or something. It’ll be nice.”

“God, Dora, I love you.” He says after a moment, his voice cracking, and she laughs. 

“I love you too.” She says. “Finish packing. I’ll see you soon.”

She hangs up, and Diego heads back down the stairs. 

“She said yes.” He tells Klaus, watching as Klaus beams and then jumps to his feet. “Hang on, I gotta finish packing.”

He grumbles, but reluctantly sits back down to wait.

* * *

Diego is nervous when he pulls up to the house and stops the engine. He can see the shadow moving behind the light curtains that’s probably Dora with the baby, and he’s out of the car before Klaus can unbuckle his seatbelt.

“Don’t start yelling, okay?” He asks. “Like, I know you’re excited to see her, but please. Keep your voice down.”

He knows he sounds like a bit of an asshole, but it’s really not his fault. Babies are freaking  _ exhausting,  _ and Darcy gets really frightened by loud noises. 

Klaus looks bewildered, but he nods, and Diego pulls the front door open after a few seconds. 

“Oh, thank  _ fuck _ you’re back.” Dora says the moment he walks in, crossing the floor and settling a fussing Darcy into his already open arms. “She’s been fed and changed and napped, she just wants you now.”

Darcy is looking up at him with wide open eyes, and he bounces her a little bit. 

“Did you miss me, Princess?” He asks her, and he’s well aware his voice is softer and sappier than Klaus has probably ever heard it, but he can’t bring himself to care. “Did you miss your Dad?”

He hears Klaus gasp, but he’s too focused on Darcy to look up. She coos up at him, waving her tiny hands, and he laughs. 

“Fucking  _ explain,”  _ Klaus demands after just a moment, and he sounds a little choked up, but it could just be from surprise. 

Diego carefully shifts to hold Darcy up to him, making sure her neck is supported.

“Klaus, meet your niece, Darcy Grace.” He says, and Klaus claps one hand over his mouth, muffling a squeal. He looks at her for a moment, just drinking her in, before holding his arms out and sitting when Diego tells him to.

Diego carefully lowers Darcy into his waiting arms, and Klaus cradles her tenderly.

“Explain,” He demands again. “No offense, brother dear, but your daughter looks nothing like you.”

“That’s what happens when spontaneous pregnancy occurs,” Dora mutters, and Klaus’ jaw  _ drops.  _

“ _ What?  _ You mean, she was-”

“Born like us?” Diego says, and takes a seat on the sofa, Dora sitting down next to him. “Yeah. It gave us one hell of a scare when it happened.”

Klaus stares at him, frowning.    
  


“Are you screwing with me?” He asks. “Because, if you are-”

Diego sighs. 

“No, I’m not screwing with you, bro.” He says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Think about it for a second- why didn’t you know about her before? Why hasn’t there been any birth announcements, or any gossip from Allison? I know she calls you once a week while you’re in rehab.”

Klaus opens his mouth, then closes it again, considering.

“Fair point.” He concedes. “You know they’re going to be pissed when they find out you’ve been keeping this a secret, right?”

“I know,” Diego says, right at the same time that Dora says, “Well, I don’t give a fuck.”

God, he loves her. 

Klaus twists his head to look at her, and it doesn’t faze her at all. 

“I mean,” She says, “I  _ hate  _ that Darcy doesn’t get to know her aunts and uncles. But it’s not worth the risk of your Dad finding out about her.”

Sudden understanding dawns on Klaus’ face. 

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense.” He says, and then looks down at Darcy’s face. “I get why you’d wanna keep it secret. Keep her secret, I mean.” 

“Good, because it’s gonna stay that way as long as I can keep it.” Diego says firmly, watching until Klaus nods. Then he relaxes, if only marginally. 

“God, I can’t believe we were ever that little.” Klaus says after a couple minutes of silence. “Look at her tiny fingernails. Can I paint them?”

Diego hesitates and looks over at Dora.

“Probably not a good idea,” She says, but she’s smiling. “Let’s wait till she quits sticking her hands in her mouth all the time, alright?”

“Alright.” Klaus says absently, and then freezes. “Wait, you’re okay with me coming back?”

“I wanna lay down a couple ground rules,” Dora answers, “but yeah, I’m okay with it. You’re her family. And more importantly, Diego wants you around.”

Klaus looks up at Diego, as if he’s uncertain, and Diego is hit by a sudden wave of guilt. It’s been a few months since he last saw Klaus, and he had never bothered to check up on him. Klaus has always been a bit insecure; he probably wonders if he’s welcome.

“Yeah, Klaus.” He says gruffly after a moment, trying to keep his composure. “I would like it if you were around regularly again. And… it’ll be great to have Darcy know at least one of her uncles.”

Klaus smiles- slowly, sweetly. The way he used to when they were kids, before the ghosts and the drugs and Dad got to be too much. 

“Alright,” he murmurs, looking at Darcy. After a moment he bends and presses a soft kiss to his niece’s forehead.

  
And  _ then  _ Diego starts crying. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is just * nice things happen * * diego cries *
> 
> Anyways fdsjhfsdjhk this is the most quickly one of my fics have been acknowledged! I'm so glad so many of you are liking it; your comments are what keep me going I get so excited every time that I see one.
> 
> come hang out with me at betsyscreaming on tumblr! send me opinions/predictions/stuff you'd like to see happen in the fic


	5. Chapter 5

From then on, Klaus is a semi-regular fixture in their lives. Thankfully, he doesn’t need it spelled out for him that he needs to be sober when he comes over. He doesn’t show up for almost a week and a half, and Diego becomes a little worried he’s either gotten hurt or doesn’t want to be there again after all. 

But then he gets off of a shift and Klaus is in his living room, painting Dora’s nails and babbling at Darcy, a half-eaten plate on the coffee table, and Diego relaxes. 

He visits about once a week. The time of day varies- sometimes he’ll be knocking at seven in the morning, or noon, and once Diego almost threw a knife at him when he went downstairs to make a bottle for Darcy’s three AM feeding and Klaus was just watching TV and eating cereal- but he always shows up before the week is out. 

Sometimes it takes longer than normal, and he shows up with a shaky smile and a look in his eye that Diego knows means he needs a distraction, so he’ll plop Darcy down in Klaus’ hands, because there’s nothing more he seems to like than the reminder of life, and trying to make his niece laugh. 

Sometimes he shows up more than once a week, makes himself a sandwich and insists Diego tell him all the gossip going on at the precinct. He stays all day long, talks to Dora at dinner, and falls asleep on the couch. He’s gone in the morning, but he usually leaves a little note on the back of a paper plate letting everyone know he’s okay and he’ll be back. 

And its… It’s nice. It’s more than Diego thought he would ever have with any of his siblings again. It’s enough to make him feel like he’s dreaming when he sees Klaus playing peek-a-boo with Darcy, or when he gets freaking out and Dora’s not there and Klaus knows him well enough to just be  _ there,  _ a comforting presence in his life.

* * *

Months pass like that- just calm, and blissful. Diego’s freaked out out of his mind some of the time, sure, but when has that ever  _ not  _ been the case?

Darcy turns three months old, then four, then five months. She starts to actually track their movements with her eyes, to roll over (Diego’s had to catch her almost falling off the couch  _ numerous  _ times). 

She starts looking a little less like Dora’s carbon copy and a little more like herself. As her hair grows it starts to get a little curly, and Klaus is  _ obsessed  _ with how soft it is when he visits.

Eventually, she starts being able to sit up as long as they stuff a pillow behind her, and she also starts shrieking if she  _ isn’t  _ sitting up as often as possible, so they dedicate a corner of the couch as her little nest, where she sits and babbles to them. 

Now that she’s not sleeping and crying all the time, her personality is starting to come out a little. Every day with her is a treasure to Diego. He loves her little giggles when he plays peekaboo with her, loves her slowly growing obsession with textures (every time he plays with her she insists on feeling the long scar on his head, and somehow that makes the scar harder to hate.) 

Dora likes to say she’s  _ opinionated,  _ because any time you talk to her she babbles or coos back, waving her tiny little hands like she’s monologuing. 

“I love you  _ so  _ fucking much.” He tells her, kissing her head. She squeals and claps one little hand to his cheek. 

“Don’t say fuck to the baby!” Dora scolds him and he laughs, standing up to kiss her.

“I love  _ you  _ so fucking much, too.” He mumbles against her mouth. She laughs and shoves him away, only to pull him back in just a moment later. 

It’s heaven.

* * *

Okay, so here’s the thing: Diego sucks at cooking. So does Dora. They’re gradually trying to learn though, because it’s not like they can afford take out every night. 

One night, Dora’s cooking spaghetti, and she doesn’t like cooking alone, so Diego hovers in the doorway talking with her, ocassionally looking back at the couch to make sure Darcy isn’t in danger of falling off or eating anything random. 

She’s laughing at a dumbass joke he just cracked, and he’s grinning, and everything’s perfect. Then he realizes he hasn’t heard Darcy babble in a moment, so he looks over his shoulder. 

_ She’s not there.  _

Dora sees the absolute panic on his face and stops her stirring, cutting past him. While he’s already whipped out a knife and is ready to run out into the street to see if he can find any clues, she’s more reasonable about it.

She runs up the stairs, is gone for a moment while Diego inspects the front and back door and the downstairs windows. Nothing is unlocked or forced open. Nothing is disrupted. 

“All clear up here!” She yells, and Diego takes a deep breath, trying to force himself to stay calm. 

“Same down here!” He yells back, and she comes running back down, looking just as panicked as he is. 

“Babies don’t just  _ vanish  _ into thin air, Diego,” She says, and there are tears in her eyes. “What if-”

Diego shakes his head. He doesn’t want to hear the possibility- he can’t  _ handle  _ hearing the possibility. 

“Dad’s good,” He tells Dora, “But even he can’t get in and out of a locked house. Not since Five-”

He chokes up.  _ Not since Five also vanished.  _

What if his baby girl has developed powers? What if she has  _ anything  _ like Five had, and now she’s just-just gone?

_ Breathe.  _ He tells himself, and does, forcing his thoughts to be rational.

“Dora,” He says, “We’re going to find Darcy.”

Just as quickly as the panic began, it stops, because Darcy starts babbling at the sound of her name. Diego gasps and whips around.

There’s nothing there. But the babbling is coming from the couch. 

_ What if she developed powers?  _ He thinks again, almost deliriously as he crosses the room, awkwardly feeling for the spot where he set her down. Miracle of miracles, his hands close around her stomach, and he lifts her up and feels her start slobbering against his collarbone. 

Klaus shows up half an hour later and lets himself in, and Diego can only  _ imagine  _ how confused Klaus must be. There is spaghetti charring in its pot on the stove, and Diego and Dora are sitting collapsed against each other  _ sobbing  _ while Darcy babbles- invisibly- in Diego’s arms. 

“What,” Klaus begins slowly, “the  _ fuck  _ is going on?”


	6. Chapter 6

Life with a baby that can turn invisible is…  _ interesting  _ , to say the least. They have to remember where they set her down, better, because response to her name isn’t a hundred percent, yet. Klaus suggests having spray bottles of water mixed with food coloring to be able to find her. Dora and Diego google if food coloring is safe for babies, but end up rejecting it anyways because he doesn’t want to hose his daughter down every time he needs to know where she is. 

Later that night he finds himself wondering if he could keep a tub of baby powder around to try and find her by. But for all his luck Klaus or someone would mistake it for powdered sugar and try to eat a spoonful of it and-

He bursts out laughing, and then has to explain why to a half-asleep Dora why he can’t stop cackling at midnight. When he explains it to her, she rolls her eyes, though he can  _ see  _ the grin she’s giving him. 

In the end, they settle for just giving her one of her favorite toys every time they set her down. Whatever her full power is, it hasn’t manifested yet. It only extends to her and what she’s wearing. 

So, on ocassion, he’ll go to pick up his daughter and he has to pinpoint where she is by the floating teddy bear. It’s okay. It’s actually kind of funny. 

(Something about the fact that his baby girl has powers makes him miss his family even more, but he doesn’t talk about that. He just curls closer to Dora, closes his eyes when she runs a hand through his hair.)

* * *

The time flies by faster than he ever thought it would. Soon it’s April fourth, 2014, and Darcy is a year old. He doesn’t know how his baby made it to this point, and he’s so fucking  _ emotional  _ about it, which is ridiculous. One year old is still a baby. 

She still cries when he leaves for work, and it rips his fucking heart open to see her standing on her tiptoes as best as she can to watch him go through the window.

When he comes back she shrieks  _ Daddy  _ and stumbles across the floor as quickly as her feet will let her to fling herself at him (which usually ends up in Diego racing across a room to catch her before she cracks her skull open on the coffee table, but he doesn’t care.)

She can only say a handful of words (Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Klaus- sounding more like Unc Au, because she can’t really pronounce it all, dog, bear. )

But still. She’s a whole year old. 

So of course they’re getting her gifts- small things only, since she’s too little to really remember it. Dora’s had to veto a few things each from them, because Diego’s ideas are things that were geared towards gifts he had been given as a kid (not the best idea in retrospect), and Klaus’ were just ridiculous or inconvenient. 

“No,” Dora says flatly when Klaus finds this plush duck he wants to give her. It looks normal, but when you squeeze it, it quacks. “We won’t get a moment of peace if you give that to her and I’ll end up going crazy.”

Klaus huffs, but keeps looking reluctantly, while Diego holds up a set of Duplos and is met with an approving nod. 

When he jokingly holds up a plastic knife from a toy cooking set, she rolls her eyes, but agrees to it reluctantly.

In the end, they end up with a handful of gifts for her- a bright pink teddy bear, a poofy little dress, the fake knife, the duplo set, a stuffed dog, and Klaus somehow manages to sneak the duck into the pile of gifts anyways. 

Later that night, hearing the repeated loud  _ quacking  _ from the nursery, Dora points an accusing finger at a cackling Klaus. 

When they finally make it to their bed, Diego kisses Dora softly, and then he presses kisses to all of the scars and stretch marks on her uncovered stomach as they’re getting into pajamas. 

She pulls him up to kiss him properly, nipping his lip playfully, and he thanks the universe for whoever gave him this extraordinary life. 

(Somewhere, a little girl riding a bike stops frowning.)

* * *

The next day, everything seems perfectly normal. Diego has breakfast with his family (he’s finally got to the point where he can make simple things, like scrambled eggs and toast). Klaus pours way too much sugar into his coffee and rambles on about his plans for the day. Apparently he wants to go to the library for some reason or other. 

(When he says this, a certain ghost shoots him a grateful smile. Klaus smiles back, hiding it behind his coffee mug.)

He stands and shrugs on his weird coat, and Diego stands because he needs to start getting ready. He hears the front door open. 

And then it slams shut barely a moment later. Klaus races back into the room as Diego’s rinsing his plate.

“Dude,” He says, his voice high pitched and freaked out, “there is a  _ shit ton  _ of people on your porch.”

Darcy slings scrambled eggs across the room, frowning when her spoon goes with it. Then she looks up at Klaus.

“Shit.” She says, and Dora gasps and then bites her lip,  _ hard,  _ so she doesn’t laugh.

“Watch your fucking language, kiddo.” Klaus tells Darcy in a playful voice, ignoring Dora’s scandalized look. Darcy giggles. 

Diego takes a moment to look over the scene fondly, before reluctantly forcing himself to focus on the topic at hand. 

“People? Like… ghosts?” Diego asks, because he can’t fathom why there’d be a mob scene at their door. 

“Like real fucking people.” Klaus says. “Cameras and all that jazz.”

Diego’s heart races up into his throat. One glance to his side and he tells Dora’s freaking out internally, too. She picks up Darcy, who frowns at the both of them, looking very confused. And then she decides whatever’s going on isn’t worth it and sort of blinks out of view, giggling. Dora gives a tense smile to their now-invisible daughter.

“I’ll check it out,” Diego promises, kissing her on the cheek before heading to the door, pulling it open just enough for him to be visible. 

He’s greeted with what looks like multiple fucking news stations, and flash bulbs start going off and people start shouting. He hasn’t felt this scrutinized since the mission that killed Ben, and it’s hard for him to stay cool. He doesn’t know how Allison deals with this shit- how she likes it, even.

Klaus slips up beside him, squeezing his hand gently. 

“Diego! Over here! Have you heard about-”

“Diego, look at me! What do you think ab-”

“Diego!” Says one man, forcing his way to the front of the crowd. “What was it like to grow up with numbers as names?”

Diego  _ freezes.  _

“What happened?” He asks, stepping out on the porch, Klaus dropping his hand and following tensely. 

  
And  _ that  _ is how Number Two ( _ Diego,  _ his name is  _ Diego, dammit)  _ finds out about little Number Seven’s tell-all book.


	7. Chapter 7

Against his better judgement, Diego buys Vanya’s book and decides to read it. Against  _ her  _ better judgement, Dora lets him. He invites her to read it with her and doesn’t say why, but she can see in his eyes that he needs support right now, so she does. 

It’s fucking  _ horrible.  _ The book is titled  _ Extra Ordinary: My Life As Number Seven,  _ but it reads more like a tell-all book from an obviously biased point of view. Dora reads about how Vanya “felt excluded” from missions and things, and then reads brutal descriptions of punishments Reginald inflicted on Diego and his siblings and wonders how Vanya didn’t count herself  _ lucky  _ to be out of his regard. She reads about Diego’s brother’s bloody, horrible death and Vanya’s detached description of it and the aftermath. 

“We were never a real family,” Diego reads aloud, and then chokes on a sob, and at that point Eudora decides to turn off the lights. She tells him they’ll pick it back up in the morning if he wants to, and that if he doesn’t she’d be perfectly fine with torching the damn thing.

Diego nods, and she pulls him close, stroking his hair until he falls asleep. 

She had never thought she’d want to fight someone half as much as she wanted to hurt Reginald, but she was pretty sure if Vanya had appeared in front of her right then she would have had no qualms with beating her to a pulp. 

In the morning, they finish reading it before doing exactly what Dora suggested- they open the kitchen window and they light the book on fire in the sink. Diego takes a picture and posts it to his twitter. When one of his many new followers asks how he’s doing, he answers in a short video. It’s the only comment he gives on the whole debacle. 

“I wish,” He says, speaking slowly so that his stutter doesn’t come back. “That she hadn’t written it. It brought back a long list of things for me that I’ve been working hard to get through. But I have a wonderful family in my girlfriend and my brother Klaus, and they’re really on my side. They’re what matters to me, not anything the media or Vanya says.”

Before he can even hit the end recording button, Dora is pulling him in to kiss him senseless. 

* * *

The aftermath is bigger than anything Vanya had probably predicted. 

With the flock of reporters tracking him, Diego’s forced to use his vacation days instead of doing any real work for the police force. Dora goes out when she can, and literally three days pass before the media finds out what he and Dora have been working so hard to protect- Darcy. Their daughter. 

When Diego turns on the TV with the intention of putting Bubbleguppies on for Darcy and hears her name mentioned in the news, he has a panic attack. 

Klaus, who has decided to stay with them for emotional support for the time being, distracts Darcy while Dora takes Diego’s hands and helps him through a set of breathing exercises. 

“They don’t know she has powers.” She whispers, too soft for anyone but him to hear, knowing his worry. “And remember what I said when she was born? If your father says  _ anything  _ about taking her, you can kill the bastard. After I beat the shit out of him.”

He nods, taking a desperate breath. 

Somehow, this is the last straw for Dora, because she bundles Darcy into her car seat and bullies the other two out the door.

“Your sister can’t just get away thinking what she’s done is okay, Diego.” She says, and when he opens his mouth (probably to say he doesn’t mind, he’s still nervous about being vulnerable), she runs over the top of him. “Not just because of how she acted about you and Klaus. She put  _ Darcy  _ in danger. I’m not standing for that shit. None of what she did is right. You deserve better than this, and so does our kid. ”

It’s the right thing to say, because the reluctance fades out of Diego’s face. Dora opens the door, steps out in front of Diego and Klaus and gives her best scowl at the flock of reporters that’s been slowly diminishing. 

“You’re on private property.” She says loudly, talking over all of them. “If you don’t get back I’ll be forced to arrest you for trespassing.”

When they clear back, momentarily quieted, the three of them rush to the car. Diego’s looking at her like she hung the very stars in the sky and she can’t help but kiss him. 

Once they’re in the car, they drive to the Icarus theater, and they must have gotten lucky  _ somehow,  _ because Vanya is leaving the theater as they park. Klaus opts to stay in the background, leaning against the car and lighting up a cigarette once Dora takes Darcy from him. 

When Vanya spots the three of them, she looks for a moment like a deer in the headlights, clutching her violin case tighter as they approach. Then she just looks tired.

“What are you going to say, Diego?” She asks. “Gonna yell at me? Tell me I fucked up? Nice to see you for the first time in  _ over a year,  _ by the way.”

Diego looks like he’s just barely holding it together. 

“You did fuck up.” He says, and his voice is quietly furious. “You told everyone about your trauma, and if that’s what you needed to do I get it. But you had  _ no right  _ to tell everyone about how Ben died, or about how Dad used to almost drown me. You didn’t have the right to tell the whole world about  _ my  _ trauma, Vanya.”

Vanya looks taken aback. She was probably more prepared for a yelling match. 

“I deserve better than that,” Diego continues. “I have such a good life. I’m  _ happy  _ now. I didn’t need you to tell the whole world what that bastard put me through.”

Vanya looks at him again to appraise him, and then she looks at Dora for the first time. Her jaw drops when she sees the baby in Dora’s arms, who’s studying her with big, dark eyes. She opens her mouth to speak, but Diego shakes his head, takes Darcy from Dora. 

“That’s all I needed to say to you.” He says flatly. “Dora, I’m going back to the car.”

He turns and does just that, and Klaus follows, probably because he doesn’t want to watch the confrontation that is an absolutely  _ furious  _ Eudora Patch. 

“I  _ get  _ that you’re traumatized,” She says, before Vanya has a chance to start speaking. “I get you had a fucked up childhood that probably took  _ years  _ of therapy and that you’re probably still working on unraveling, just judging from your book. I get you were excluded and abused and that your dad is a bastard.”

Vanya is shrinking back on herself, any retort she could have possibly made cut off by all of her acknowledgements.

“But…?” She says, and her voice is especially soft for the woman who just ripped her boyfriend’s life to shreds. 

“But you need to grow the  _ fuck  _ up.” Eudora snaps. “Diego is  _ working  _ on his shit. He’s going to therapy once a week, he’s working on opening up, he’s working out his anger issues. Klaus is working on staying sober more. They’re better people than the ones you knew what was it- seven or eight  _ years  _ ago? You don’t have a right to judge them and drag them back into the limelight just for your fifteen minutes of fame. You don’t have the right to trample over all of them like that. We have a  _ daughter  _ who we’ve spent the last  _ year  _ keeping out of the public eye because of how bad your father fucked him up. And now, thanks to your book, we might have to deal with that asshole trying to get involved in our lives. So, all I have to say to you is this: what the  _ fuck  _ is your problem, Vanya Hargreeves?”

Vanya curls in on herself, blinking tears back.

“I don’t know.” She says finally, her voice tiny. “I don’t know.”

“Figure it out.” Eudora says. “Because right now, I think you’re heading down a path that’s just going to push your siblings away more. Diego missed you a  _ lot,  _ but he wants to protect his daughter. To the point where he doesn’t even think about himself. But I do. I love him, and I’m  _ not  _ going to let you drag him back into your superhero-trauma-fest past. He deserves better than that. I know it, and you know it.”

Vanya swallows, and then nods, and Dora turns and leaves. 

(She’s given Vanya a lot to think about- all of the self-righteous fury the girl has felt in the face of how she was treated has melted, now that she’s been confronted with the thought of how she just treated her siblings. Vanya watches her get into the car, take Diego’s hand and kiss it before he drives away. 

Only then does she walk away, her mind spinning in circles with thoughts of how she messed up, thoughts of the new family member she just discovered. She wonders how she’ll fix this.

She wonders if she can.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the absolute love and support that's being thrown at this fic is so much. I love how quickly I've been getting ideas for this, and I love the excitement you all respond to this with.
> 
> On another note, I hadn't really thought about how Vanya's book would affect Darcy being secret until this chapter, so I guess at some point we might have Reginald show up. And for those of you who have been asking about Claire- I'm not sure! it absolutely stands to reason she could gain powers, but I don't know what they would be.


	8. Chapter 8

Less than a month after Vanya’s tell all book is published, she pays her publisher enough money to get it removed from shelves and publication entirely. When people hassle her to explain why, going so far as to ambush her outside of her apartment building, she looks exhausted and uncomfortable. 

“I never should have published it,” She says when they ask. “It wasn’t fair to spill my sibling’s trauma as though it were all a backdrop to what I went through, and I wish I had realized that before the damage was done. I know it’s not like I can take it all back, but this is what I  _ can  _ do, even though it’s not enough.”

Vanya’s right- it’s not enough. That book is always going to be out there, and plenty enough people have already bought and read it. 

Somehow, though, it still makes the anger and hurt Diego is feeling fade, just a little. Pacing with Darcy to get her to sleep, he manages to send her a text that’s just a simple  _ thank you.  _

She asks how he’s doing, and he responds with a picture of Darcy trying to chew on his shirt. 

It’s not enough. But it is a start. 

(Five no longer finds the book in the ruins of the library. He finds it, singed but unopened, in the rubble of his childhood home.)

* * *

Diego has to wait just a few days for the other shoe to drop. They’re all sitting in the living room, some movie he put on on a whim-  _ Tangled,  _ he thinks its called, playing for Darcy, who’s sitting in front of the tv with wide eyes. 

The doorbell rings, and everyone freezes, looking at Klaus. He’s been hanging out at their house a little more often since the whole debacle. 

Klaus tilts his head, as if listening to something, and his voice is tense when he answers. “It’s Dad.” He says flatly. 

Diego freezes, and his throat suddenly feels too tight, like he’s choking. Darcy notices, because she loses interest in the movie and gets up, holding her arms up patiently until Diego scoops her up and buries his face in her hair. 

“Diego,” Dora whispers urgently. “Take Darcy upstairs. Close the blinds and shut the door. I’ll handle this.” 

“Are you sure?” He asks her, and is surprised when she  _ grins  _ at him. 

“I’ve been waiting  _ years  _ to have a chance to get at this bastard. I’m sure.” She says, and somehow that makes it easier for Diego to breathe. He’s not even surprised. Everything is easier when she’s around. 

“Don’t kill him,” He says.

“No promises.”

“Then don’t get caught.” He tells her, watching as her face lights up before he runs up the stairs, thanking  _ god  _ that he has Dora in his life, and that Darcy is such a quiet baby when she knows things are serious.

Dora waits until the door upstairs closes, and she opens the door just in time for the doorbell to ring again. When she opens the door she’s face to face with the man who she’s been threatening to kill for almost two and a half years now, and she has to take a deep breath in order to keep her temper in check. Behind him, she notices, is a young and sweet-looking blonde woman. 

“Mr. Hargreeves, I assume?” Patch asks, forcing her voice to be polite. She wants to wait until the appropriate time to rip him a new one, or he’ll be too suspicious, likely. 

“Yes.” He says tersely, and walks in without being invited.  _ Rude.  _ “Is my son here? Or my granddaughter?”

“Do you mean Diego?” Eudora asks, trying to keep her face neutral and succeeding. 

“Who else would I mean?”

Klaus comes rushing past them, not acknowledging Reginald, and wraps his arms tightly around the blonde woman.    
  


“Mom!”

Eudora stares at him hugging who she now realizes is Grace pointedly before turning back, smiling. 

“I’m sorry, Diego and Darcy are gone. Father-daughter bonding time.”

“There are two cars in your driveway.” Reginald notes, and Eudora stares him down. 

“It’s a lovely day. Our daughter hates the car, so they decided to walk. Would you like to sit down?”

Reginald peers into the living room, at their ridiculously comfortable couch they got on sale and the lovesack Klaus just showed up with one day that Darcy  _ loves  _ sitting in, and almost  _ sneers,  _ literally turning up his nose. 

Eudora would laugh if she didn’t hate him so damn much. 

“No, thank you.” He says. “ Has my granddaughter shown any sign of powers?”

Eudora pastes the smile on her face once more, and shakes her head. 

“Nope. Just an obsession with throwing her food on the floor.” She says, lightly. 

“Well, will you or Diego get in touch if she happens to develop them?”

“I’m afraid not.” She says. 

Reginald looks at her, sizing her up for the first time. She hopes he sees that she’s not fucking around. She’s a pissed off girlfriend and a defensive mother. 

“Why not?” He demands. 

“Because,” Eudora says, her voice dropping its sweet, lighthearted tone. “I’ve been talking to your sons for years now. I know how you treated your powerless daughter. You’re a cold, unfeeling,  _ abusive  _ bastard, and I would gladly see you rot. You don’t even deserve to  _ know  _ Diego or Klaus, much less be the man who raised them. You-”

The old fucker cuts her off, looking indignant. 

“I don’t know who you think you are, but I do  _ not  _ need to listen to such  _ nonsense-” _

“Then  _ go.”  _ Patch snaps forcefully, pointing. “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”

He scowls at her before storming out. Grace, on the other hand, smiles at her and pushes a parcel into her hands.

“Things I’ve made for my granddaughter. And a quilt for you and my son.” She says, then hesitates and squeezes Eudora’s hands. “Thank you. For being there for him when I can’t.” 

Even though she’s beaming, Eudora thinks she can see a bunch of conflicting emotion in Grace’s eyes. 

“He loves you,” Eudora blurts out awkwardly. “He’s always talking about how much he misses you.”

Grace opens her mouth to answer her, but Reginald calls for her sharply outside. 

“I have to go.” She says instead of what she planned on saying. “... Tell my son I love him, too.”

“I will.” Eudora promises, and then Grace is gone and the door is closed. 

Not even a full minute passes before Diego is rushing down the stairs, cupping Dora’s cheek with one hand and pressing kisses to her face. 

“I love you so  _ fucking  _ much.” He tells her, kissing her once, twice, three times before Darcy demands to finish watching “Punza”. 

Later, Diego looks through the carefully crocheted hats and baby blankets, tears in his eyes while Dora wraps her arms around him and presses soft kisses to the back of his head and neck. 


	9. Chapter 9

After the visit, things seem like they’re going to keep running smoothly. Diego searches the entryway and both sides of the front door for bugs, sighing in relief when he finds none, and then he schedules an extra therapy appointment because he can’t stop shaking. 

Darcy’s literally one year old and she’s so intuitive. Diego thinks she can tell he’s worried for her- she’s even more clingy when he leaves for work. When he comes back, she hugs his legs and then holds her arms up until he scoops her up. 

At night, he lays her down in her crib and tucks her in next to her teddy bear and the duck Klaus gave her, and she makes a tiny noise of protest before she falls asleep again. Dora’s waiting in the doorway for him, and when she wraps her arms around him in their bed, presses sleepy kisses to his face and neck, Diego realizes that everything is going to be okay in the end. 

He thinks he can go through anything as long as he has her in his life. 

* * *

Slowly, slowly, he begins to reconnect with his siblings- only the ones he deems safe. Klaus seems to be slowly improving these days, showing up about twice a week once the media circus stops. He’s surprisingly good with Darcy, and she  _ adores  _ him, babbling at him as soon as he enters the room. 

He pretends he can understand her, but occasionally he’ll look at one of them for guidance- Dora has this weird gift of being able to tell what Darcy’s trying to say, every single time, where Diego can only get it on the first try half the time. She claims it’s just luck, but after seeing another mom do the same thing with her kid at the park, Diego decides that it must be something every mom can do.

He communicates with Vanya mostly through text- it’s two months before he sees her again after the confrontation outside the Icarus theater. When he sees her, he’s not sure if he’s ready to yet, but he’s really left without any other option. He and Dora were both scheduled for the same day, and Klaus isn’t available, and they  _ really  _ can’t trust Darcy with anyone else. 

So, he calls Vanya and asks her if she’s available to come and babysit. 

“We’re on opposite shifts,” He explains, “So you’d only be with her for like, two hours. I know it’s really sudden b-”

“Diego,” She says, interrupting him. He can practically  _ hear  _ the smile in her voice. “I would love to come and watch my niece so you and your girlfriend can work. When do you need me?”

He sighs, relieved, and gives her the details. 

“D- Eudora will be there when you come.” He says. “I’ll be there like, two hours after. Maybe a little later if I need to pick something up on the way home.”

“I can do this,” Vanya says, and Diego’s not sure whether she’s trying to convince him or convince herself. “She’s, what, a year old?” 

“Just over.” Diego confirms. “She’s really easy to deal with- just give her some of the little Gerber stars we have in our cabinets and hang out with her. You could even bring your violin to practice if you want.”

“I’ll be there.” Vanya confirms. 

Babysitting turns out well for her, until the last half-hour, when Diego gets a frantic call from Vanya. 

“I can’t find Darcy!” She yelps into the phone. Diego’s heart leaps up into his throat until she continues. “I set her down on the couch and turned to grab her snack off the coffee table and-”

“Oh!” He says, unable to hide his relief. “I know what to do for that, put me on speaker.”

Once she does, he lets his voice do that  _ thing  _ it does when he’s talking to Darcy, where he goes all soft and sappy. He doesn’t even give a shit that Vanya can hear him. 

“Hey, Darcy, sweetie.” He says, and then waits a moment. Vanya  _ yelps,  _ all surprised the way she used to when they were kids and Five would jump into her room in the middle of the night to sneak to Griddy’s. 

“ _ Daddy!”  _ Darcy practically shrieks, only sounding a little distant. 

“Hi, baby.” He repeats, grinning. “I’m gonna be home soon, okay?”

She babbles out an acknowledgement, and Vanya takes him off the speaker. 

“She turns invisible,” Vanya says, sounding a little dazed. 

“Yeah, she turns invisible.” Diego says, lowering his voice even though he’s currently alone in one of the empty offices. 

“Can she do anything else?” Vanya asks, and Diego hums slightly.

“Not yet. But that doesn’t mean it won’t develop down the line.” He says. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about it, we’ve all gotten so used to it-”

“How long has she been able to do it for?”

“Uhhhh… Like, Nine months?” He says. “Anyways, I’m sorry. I should have warned you. But I’ll make it up to you- I can get pizza on the way home, we can watch a movie and catch up, how does that sound?” 

There’s silence, so long he almost pulls the phone away from his ear to see if she’s still there, when she speaks up again. 

“I… That sounds really nice. I’d like that.”

* * *

Catching up with Vanya is… nicer than he expected. He just thought it would be awkward, because neither of them really knew how to  _ communicate  _ when they knew each other, but it’s not _.  _

The conversation flows easier than any they had as a teenager, Diego holding Darcy on his lap to feed her cut up, tiny pieces of pizza that she eats eagerly- she  _ loves  _ food. 

They talk for hours- about how hard it was for him to make it through the academy, about her violin and climbing the ranks of her orchestra. About their family members, and Vanya’s therapy appointments and Diego’s therapy appointments, and how Vanya’s culminated in her book while Diego’s culminated in having a punching bag installed in the garage for when he needs to beat the shit out of something. 

Eventually, the conversation ends up drifting to Darcy and Dora, and how much help they’ve been in Diego’s life. How hard it was keeping Darcy secret, and how much he loves Dora. 

“Are you going to propose?” Vanya asks, curious, and Diego sighs. Darcy is asleep by now, drooling on the sleeve of his shirt. 

_   
_ “I’ve thought about it.” He admits. “But… I’m not sure  _ how  _ to, exactly. I mean, I can’t imagine life without her. I’d love to be her husband. But I don’t know shit about rings or romance or any of that.”

Vanya hums an acknowledgement, then looks at the clock.

“Oh, god, I have to go.” She says. “I have lessons early.”

So he follows her while she goes to get her jacket on and put her violin away, and he opens the door for him. He’s surprised- almost  _ shocked-  _ when she hugs him. 

“Thanks for catching up with me,” She tells him. “And, about the proposal- no one ever said it  _ had  _ to be a ring, you know?  _ Or  _ romantic. I’ve heard stories about people proposing while leaning against the bathroom counter. Do what works for you two.”

Diego pats her back awkwardly, trying to act gruff when she pulls away. 

“...I’ll think about it.” He says. “See you later?”

Vanya offers him a small, slanted smile. 

“Anytime you need a babysitter, I’m there.” She says, and then she’s gone. Diego’s left watching her half-jog down the street, phone in hand to call a taxi, thinking about what she’s said. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally meant to have Allison call and Diego start reconnecting with her but then my brain went,,, Diedora marriage? And it went off the rails lmao
> 
> Thank you all so much for the comments I've been receiving on this fic- they mean the world to me!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did anyone ask for tooth rotting fluff? no? okay. have it anyways!

Diego is nervous as hell. 

Logically, he knows it’ll go well. He loves Dora, and Dora loves him. They’re totally committed to each other and Darcy, and she hasn’t said anything against marriage, so there’s no real reason for her to say no. But he can’t stop the little nagging voice in the back of his mind telling him she won’t want to, that she’ll say no. 

So he does the next best thing to stopping that voice- he talks to Klaus. It’s not like he’s got a planned conversation or anything, even though he probably should have thought of something like that. Instead, he’s picking up Klaus from the thrift store, because Klaus wanted to get a new outfit or two, and it just… spills out of him. 

“I want to propose to Patch.” He says as he’s switching lanes. Klaus, sitting in the back of the car for some reason ( he never sits in shotgun), chokes on his overly-sweet Starbucks drink that Diego bought for him. 

“...Okay?” Klaus says. “What brought this on?”

“Vanya.” Diego tells him, and Klaus snorts. “She babysat Darcy last week, when you were out of touch, and she asked if I planned on proposing and it just won’t get out of my head.”

“So why haven’t you done it yet?” Klaus asks, the perfect question to segue into what Diego needed to talk about. 

“Well, I don’t know anything about rings, so I thought I could maybe propose by a knife or something and we could go check out rings together…” He pauses, waits for Klaus to laugh. He does, but its not the kind of mockery that Diego was half-expecting. Just a sort of ‘that-makes-sense’ kind of chuckle. “...But I’m worried she’ll say no.”

This time Klaus  _ does  _ laugh, like he can’t quite believe what Diego’s saying. When Diego’s silent, and Klaus realizes that Diego’s serious, Klaus falls silent and tries to catch his eyes in the rearview mirror.

“Diego.” He says flatly, “She  _ loves  _ you.”

“I know.”

“And you love her.” 

“I do.” He says. The hesitation behind the admission has gotten so that it’s practically nonexistent. He’s no longer quite so worried that she’ll be ripped away from him. 

“Then what’s to worry about?” Klaus asks him- simple as always, unexpected common sense. Out of all of them, Klaus is probably the only one that can be at least semi-open about emotions. “She wants to be with you, she let you stick around for Darcy. She put your name down on the birth certificate. She’s in it for the long run.”

Somehow, even though it’s all stuff that Diego already knew, hearing it from Klaus- from another person- makes the tense knot of anxiety in his chest loosen, leaving only anticipation behind. 

(Ben, sitting next to Klaus in the backseat of the car, gives him a look a bit like he’s sizing him up. “Good job.” He tells Klaus, and smiles. Klaus smiles back at him- not high, not crazed, just sweet and normal and like how Klaus was  _ before.  _

And, even though he can’t touch his little niece, Ben is beyond grateful for her presence in Klaus’ life and Ben’s not-quite-afterlife.)

* * *

With Klaus’ support, Diego drops him back off at home to keep Darcy and Dora occupied (and extracts a promise from Klaus not to tell her a  _ word,  _ he wants this to be an actual surprise.) He hears Darcy shriek “Un-Klau!” excitedly as the door opens and shuts, her little baby voice pitched so that he can hear it from the driveway. 

And then Diego goes knife shopping. 

This isn’t like when he buys knives for himself, for self defense- he doesn’t care what those look like, he cares about how they function. And yeah, ideally this one will be functional too. But it’s the knife he’s going to use to ask his girlfriend to spend the rest of her life with him, so really, it needs to look a  _ little  _ fancy, at least.

He looks around for a while before he finds one that he thinks she’ll love- the handle of the knife looks almost as if it’s braided, fading into tiny etches at the hilt. The blade itself is shining, pretty but solid and perfectly useable if it ever comes down to it. 

It’s covered with a black sheathe, metal engraving on the tip of it. It feels like it’s balanced, and he decides it’s going to be the perfect knife to propose with. So he pays for it (eighty dollars, and he would gladly spend more if it had been more) and decides to head home, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves down. 

It’s going to be fine. 

* * *

He goes home, and he waits until nighttime to do it. As much as he loves Klaus, this is one of those things that he wants to just be the two of them. 

Klaus is downstairs, the TV playing in the background and a light on so that he doesn’t wake up confused, alone and in the dark and losing his shit. Darcy is in Dora’s arms, trying her hardest to stay awake, her big brown eyes falling shut slowly and then flying open again a minute later. 

Diego laughs as quietly as he can, leaning down to drop a soft kiss on her curly head of hair. 

“Night-night, silly girl.” He whispers to her, and she scrunches up her little face. 

“Noo,” She whines, yawning partway through. “Want Mama. N’ Daddy.” 

She’s asleep not even five minutes later, but Diego is left absolutely  _ soft.  _ He doesn’t think anyone’s ever been able to break his walls down as fast as his daughter can, or have him care about that fact so little. 

Dora leaves the room, and Diego slips the knife from his back pocket to his front in the twenty seconds it takes for her to get down the hall and lay Darcy down to sleep. When she comes back in, he holds out his hand to her, and she takes it, looking amused. 

He pulls her down onto the bed to sit down next to him, pulling her into a soft kiss and relishing the feel of her lips against his. 

“I love you,” She whispers when they pull back to breathe, and he smiles.

“I love you too,” He whispers, and then takes a breath. It’s now or never. “Dora… I don’t even know where I’d be if I didn’t have you in my life.” He tells her. 

Her face softens, and she opens her mouth to say something, but he keeps talking. 

“I mean it. You’re such a wonderful person, and you’re such a good Mom to Darcy- and god, I love that little girl of ours, you know?” He asks, and she nods, now looking just a little teary. “I love our family. I love coming home to you two and I love waking up in the morning to see your face, or hear her freaking out down the hall because she wants to see one of us. I wouldn’t trade it for  _ anything.”  _

She nods again, and he pulls out the knife hesitantly, grinning at her. 

“I know it’s not really conventional, and if you want we can go look at actual engagement rings tomorrow,” He starts nervously, and Dora’s eyes widen.

“ _ Yes.”  _ She says emphatically, before he can even finish his sentence.

“I haven’t even asked yet!” He protests, but he’s laughing, and he can  _ feel  _ himself starting to tear up. 

“Then  _ ask!”  _ She whisper-shouts, and he grins at her. 

“Dora Patch,” He says softly, “would you make me the happiest man on the planet and let me be your husband?”

Dora pulls him in and kisses him. Then kisses him again. And a third time.

“Yes.” She says finally, grinning at him. “Yes, I’ll let you be my husband.” She says, half laughing. He presses the knife into her hands. 

She unsheathes it, examines it. Traces her fingers over it carefully, like she wants to commit it to memory before she resheathes it, setting it down on their end table as though it’s made of glass. 

Then she straddles his lap and pushes him back down onto the bed and kisses him again, murmuring an “I love you.” against his lips. 

He sets his hands on her hips, stares up at her feeling as though he’ll wake up and it will all have been a dream. But she is there, warm and so blessedly real underneath his fingers, so he kisses her back and beams.

“I love you too.” He whispers back,before she shuts him up with another kiss. 


	11. Chapter 11

Life, for Diego, is only going up. 

He has Eudora. He has Darcy. He has Klaus, when Klaus is sober. He has Vanya, when Vanya’s not in lessons or rehearsals. For the first time in his life, he has a functional family. 

When he and Eudora go to pick out rings so she has something to show off instead of just the knife (mostly because they both agree that her whipping out a knife in public wouldn’t be the best- Diego still has to be careful on his rare vigilante nights. Most police officers aren’t as kind about it as Eudora.) 

They go into the jewelry store, and apparently the cashier is one of the new followers Diego gained on twitter from Vanya’s book fiasco. Diego ignores the twinge of pain he feels when the man makes a reference to how hard it must have been growing up named  _ Number Two.  _ Luckily, the glare that Eudora gives him seems to subdue him enough to get his foot out of his mouth and allows for them to go engagement ring shopping in peace, with Darcy occasionally cooing “ _ pri-ee!”  _ at something particularly shiny.

In the end, Diego gets himself a plain silver band, with tiny white stones studded through. He doesn’t even really pay attention to what they are. Eudora gets one that’s close enough to match- twisting silver in a braid and a simple diamond. When she holds it up for Darcy’s approval, their daughter squeals, and Eudora smiles.

\--------------

Diego gets in trouble for de-escalating a situation when he’s on shift instead of it ending in an arrest or a shooting. The person in question, who’s life is better for it, is barely eighteen, and all Diego can think of is Ben’s face, how scared he was the morning of his final mission. 

Diego quits the force on the spot.

Even though they have to sit down and figure out how to rework their finances, Eudora supports his decision to leave, and holds onto him when he wakes up from nightmares, missing his younger brother.

He gets a job at a boxing place instead. The employees are gruff, like him. The work is honest and the pay is good, and it doesn’t hurt when he starts making money in fights, either.

\------------

Because of the odd, mostly nighttime hours his job keeps, Diego is at home and taking care of Darcy when he sees it. On the news, there’s reports of an explosion. 

Of one Luther Hargreeves, otherwise known as  _ Spaceboy,  _ who was caught in it.

Klaus happens to be visiting at the time, and he and Diego give each other wide eyed looks. Yeah, Luther was too caught up in their dad’s bullshit to ever realize how badly they were all mistreated. Yeah, he and Diego were forced into competition so much they almost never got along. Yeah, Luther is kind of an asshole. 

But Luther’s their  _ brother.  _ He always had their back on missions- he took a bullet in the shoulder once for Diego. 

They wait, pressed together in tense silence. Klaus doesn’t want to be sober, but he wants even less for Diego to have to be alone with Darcy and the uncertainty.

(The proud smile Ben gives him when he just settles in on the couch makes him feel warm inside, no matter how bad his cravings are.)

One day passes. Then two days. Luther’s ghost never appears, and Klaus finally starts to feel like he can breathe, because it means he won’t have another dead brother joining him. He’s genuinely unsure he’d be able to handle it if that was the case.

On the third day, there’s a knock on the door. A tense moment of silence before Klaus, his voice breaking in relief, says,    
  


“It’s Luther.” 

Diego rushes to the door, and throws it open. 

Luther looks… different. He’s taller, his hair is longer, he’s got  _ stubble-  _ when Diego knew him, he tried to be as clean shaven as possible. And he’s fucking  _ giant,  _ too. He’s at least four inches taller and he’s seriously bulked up. 

It doesn’t stop him from being surprised when he’s all but tackled by two of his brothers in a group hug.

Diego lets Klaus take the more emotional lead on this one. He’s afraid if he speaks he won’t stop stuttering.

“We thought you were  _ dead,  _ asshole!” Klaus bursts out.

Darcy, toddling out on her little legs, hugs Diego’s leg and cranes her head back to look up at Luther shyly. Then she looks at Klaus.

“Ass.” She says, and Klaus laughs.

“Darcy Grace,” Diego says in a scolding tone. Its half-hearted, because Eudora usually does the scolding, and Darcy knows it.    
  
“Daddy.” She says in the same tone, and then holds her arms up. Diego picks her up and swings her up into his arms, and then looks at Luther, who seems shell- shocked.

“Did Dad not tell you about my kid?” He asks, and Luther shakes his head.    
  
“Figures.” He says, and then sighs. “Well, come on in- my fiancee will be home for dinner soon. You can meet her, too.”

He steps aside and Luther enters, ducking his head on the doorframe like he’s not quite used to his new height yet. 

“Daddy.” Darcy whimpers, in that tone that Diego  _ hates.  _ The one that means she’s scared, the one she always has when she wakes up from random nightmares she doesn’t quite have the words to tell him about yet. 

“Its okay, Princess. I’m here.” He tells her, and she nuzzles against him more, reaching up with one hand to rub the scar on the side of his head. “Whats wrong?”

She points at Luther. “Who?”

_ Ohhh. Are we entering the stranger danger phase? _

“That’s your Uncle, Darcy.” He tells her. “Can you say hi to Uncle Luther?”

This seems to be exactly the right words, because Luther looks surprised  _ again,  _ and all of Darcy’s fear melts away as she reaches out. 

“Unc-Lu!” She announces, and Diego laughs. 

“She wants you to hold her.” He tells Luther, and Luther looks concerned.

“I’m not gonna hurt her?” He asks. Diego chuckles.

“No, man. My kid’s tough.”

So Luther reaches out and takes Darcy, his hands completely closing around her torso, and settles him on her lap. She immediately cuddles into his stomach, and Luther looks like he might cry. Diego is still shit when it comes to dealing with people crying who aren’t Dora or Darcy, so he decides to change the subject.

“So, not that I’m not glad to see you, but what’s the reason for you visiting?”

“Oh, um…” Luther shifts, like he’s not quite sure how to get the words out. Then he takes a breath. “I just… I wanted to say goodbye.”

The next words knock the air out of Diego’s lungs.

“Dad is sending me to the moon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!! Sorry I disappeared- summer semester was really busy, I haven't had motivation to write, and my depression's been trying to get the best of me. But I saw the first six episodes of the new season, and then rewatched the first three with one of my new roommates and got enough spoons up to write this!! Here's hoping I'll get back in the flow!!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: discussions of child abuse.

The words feel like a punch to the gut. Klaus, at Diego’s side, is shell shocked, lost for words. As for Diego… that old fury he felt for his father comes rushing back, with none of the terror present that’s usually there. 

He won’t (or  _ can’t)  _ defend himself against his father, but he’ll sure as hell defend his siblings. Even the ones like Luther, who have no idea that they need defending. 

“He can’t do that.” Diego says finally, and Luther frowns slightly, confusion flickering over his face. “He has no right.”

“Diego, he’s our father. He has  _ ever-”  _ Luther begins, but Diego cuts him off, his mind racing. He doesn’t know how to make Luther see this. Doesn’t know if he can. But he’s just gotten Klaus and Vanya back into his life, and a small, optimistic part of him thinks that he might be able to get Luther, too. Even if they were never particularly close.

Oh, they had their moments where they weren’t always competing for  _ One  _ and  _ Two,  _ where they could just laugh and relax a little. But sooner or later, those little windows of time always closed and they were back to bitter competition. Now, though? Diego is  _ done.  _ It’s taking time to work through his resentment and his trauma in therapy, but he  _ is  _ working on it. 

He’s done seeing his brother like the enemy, like their bitch of a father always wanted him to. He would like to see what the real Luther is like. 

“Luther,” he says, and his voice is surprisingly calm despite the rage that he feels. “You know you don’t owe him anything, right?”

Luther sputters, tries to say he  _ knows  _ he doesn’t, but Diego knows he’s hit the nail right on the head with this one. 

“He saved my life.” Luther says finally. “And- and I can’t just  _ walk away  _ from the Academy, like you did, Diego.”

Okay,  _ that  _ hurts. For a minute Diego feels like snapping, but then he catches sight of Darcy, still in Luther’s lap. Her little face is confused, but Diego  _ promised  _ himself back when she was a newborn that he would never lose control in front of her. That she would never have to deal with bullshit from him, and it doesn’t  _ matter  _ that she’s probably too young to remember. He won’t do it. Instead, he takes a deep breath and then lets it out. 

“Believe me, walking away from it  _ sucked.”  _ Diego says quietly. “But… I had to. For the sake of my mental health.”

The look of confusion is back on Luther’s face- he had clearly expected this to dissolve into another one of their heated arguments. The fact that Diego’s got a hold on his temper must come as a surprise. Diego ignores it and pushes on. 

“And when I walked away, when I joined the police academy- shit, I learned a lot.” He said quietly. “I learned, for example, that the shit Dad did to us in training? It’s considered child abuse. He didn’t want us to keep quiet about our training for tactical reasons, Luther. He did it so he could keep controlling us.”

Luther reels back as if he’s been hit. Shock and anger mix on his face.

“You don’t  _ really think-”  _ He starts, his voice loud and angry. Darcy picks up on the tone immediately and whimpers, holding her arms out for Diego. Luther stops as Diego immediately sweeps her away, regret at having scared his niece clear all over his face. 

“ _ Luther.”  _ Diego  _ does  _ snap then, but he can’t help it. The fact that Darcy was scared, if only for a moment, is too upsetting to keep his cool over. “I understand this is an upsetting topic, man, but if you make my kid cry I’m gonna beat your ass.”

Luther nods and swallows. After a minute he keeps talking, his tone more subdued than it was before. The shock undercutting his voice is still audible, though.

“You don’t  _ really  _ think Dad was abusive, do you?” Luther asks. “I mean, he never hit us.”

“He never hit  _ you,  _ you mean.” Klaus mutters, and Luther glances up in shock. 

“He’s right, man.” Diego says quietly. “I- look. Darcy’s a year and a half old, and Dad only found out about her after Vanya’s book came out. There’s a  _ reason  _ for that. I don’t want him to hurt her.”

“He wouldn’t-” Luther begins hotly, and Diego stares him down. 

“Luther. Remember that time he kept making you lift more and more weights, and he didn’t have a spotter for you or anything?” Diego asks, dredging up memories from before their debut, on the rare days they would train in the same room together. “And you ended up breaking a few of your ribs because you couldn’t hold it up anymore?” He asks.

Luther nods, frowning slightly.

“That was  _ wrong.”  _ Diego said quietly. “He should have stopped the moment you said you were tired. Nothing justifies that- it doesn’t matter that he was trying to train you to be better. It doesn’t matter that he said he was doing it to help you. And it wouldn’t have even  _ worked-  _ I work in a gym now. There are people there who went to college to learn how to train people for that kind of thing. That’s not how you build up strength. Dad was wrong.”

There’s a moment of shock on Luther’s face. He opens his mouth and then closes it again, a minute later. 

“He was wrong?” Luther whispers, and he doesn’t  _ sound  _ twenty five. He sounds like what they never really got the chance to be- a scared child. Diego understands that feeling. When he first grasped that he was raised wrong, that he was abused- it was like the world fell out from underneath him. He’s thankful that he had Eudora in his life even then, because he can’t imagine what he would have done otherwise. Probably spiraled. Hell, maybe he would have been out of the police force a lot sooner.

“He was.” Diego confirmed, keeping his voice soft. “I’m sorry, man, I know it’s hard.”

“He still  _ is  _ wrong.” Klaus said quietly, speaking up and getting up off the couch, crossing over to Luther. “And- and that’s why you can’t go, okay? I know it sucks. I know it’s  _ hard.”  _

His eyes flicker to one corner, as if he’s looking for approval from something. (Or some _ one,  _ as a ghostly Ben nods at him reassuringly.) Then Klaus continues.

“Believe me, I’m- I’m not handling it the best. Some days all I can do is get high off my ass so I don’t have to think about it. I’m pretty sure that’s where I’d still be now. But Diego’s working on it too.” He says. His hazel eyes are clear, and he’s earnest in a way that Diego hardly ever sees him. “You’ve been alone in that house since we moved. But Luther, you don’t have to be alone anymore. We can be there for you. We  _ want  _ to be there for you.”

Luther’s eyes well up with tears- apparently it’s hitting him too, how they can be  _ close,  _ in a way they never were. Klaus pulls him into a hug, and motions one arm out for Diego, who steps in willingly, Darcy still in his arms.

“I’s kay.” Darcy says, her little voice quiet and worried for her Dad and her Uncles, and Diego loves her so much he could  _ burst.  _ “Daddy? I’s kay?”

“Yeah, Princess.” He tells her quietly. “It’s okay.”

And for once, he actually feels like it is.


	13. Chapter 13

Life is getting pretty hectic for them, with all of the changes that have been going on. 

Luther moved out of the mansion, told his father that he was certain the protocols already in place on the Moon would be sufficient enough without warranting further observation. Diego helped him move, carrying out arm after arm of model airplanes and crate after crate of vinyl. 

He moved into an apartment in the same complex as Vanya, across the hall from her. They all helped him get set up, carrying in discount couches even when Luther insisted he could do it himself (“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should have to, bro!”)

Luther insisted on hanging up the airplanes in the living room. After he was sure they were secure, he picked up a reaching Darcy, holding her up so her little fingers could probe the edges of the airplanes curiously. 

Klaus brought in a few packages of glowing stars as a joke, but Darcy started  _ shrieking  _ with joy the moment the lights went off and the glow lit up. Luther couldn’t help but beam as well, craning his head back so he could stick the stars on the ceiling, insistent on making factually correct constellations. 

The last thing that went up was the record player, and then Luther combed through his vinyl collection, setting up one of the records and beaming when Klaus picked up Darcy and set her on his feet, the little toddler screaming ( an attempt at singing) to the lyrics as she danced with her Uncle. 

Later that night, Luther’s sitting in an armchair near the window. Diego is holding Darcy and bouncing her, trying to lull her to sleep. The little girl’s eyes keep drifting shut and then opening again suddenly, like she doesn’t want to go to sleep just yet. 

“Hey,” Luther says, his voice quiet, and Diego looks up from Darcy and over to Luther. “...Thank you. For letting me know there was a way out. And helping me take it.”

Diego refuses to get choked up. It doesn’t matter that he’s trying to build a better relationship with him, he is  _ not  _ going to cry in front of Luther. 

(He gets a little choked up anyways.)

“None of us deserved to be stuck with him as long as we were.” Diego tells him. “And I didn’t want you to end up stuck with him for even longer. God only knows what you’ve been through since the rest of us moved out.”

There’s a moment of silence, and Diego wonders if he said too much, but then Luther speaks.

“...I was so lonely.” He whispers, and Diego has to step closer to hear him. “Every day I’d wake up and I  _ missed  _ you all so much, wondered what you were doing… I kept expecting to go downstairs and see you challenge me to another contest of powers, or a sparring match.”

One corner of Diego’s mouth turns up. 

“Remember,” He says slowly, “how Klaus used to insist on people placing bets? And all we’d end up betting were like, those little hershey’s candies or reeses cups?”

Luther chuckles, and Diego keeps talking. 

“And that one time I convinced you to lose the match so I’d get all the candy and we split it an-”

Klaus jolts up from his spot on the couch, pointing accusingly at Luther.

“ _ I knew it!”  _ He bursts out, not lowering his volume even when Darcy startles out of a sound sleep and starts crying. “I fucking knew you cheated at that but  _ no one-” _

“Stop  _ shouting!”  _ Eudora snaps without any menace behind it. “You woke up Darcy.”

“ _ Darcy  _ needs to know her father is a con and a  _ cheat.  _ “ Klaus says indignantly. Vanya offers to hold Darcy for a while, and Diego passes her over easily enough. Looking at the scene a feeling of  _ warmth  _ passes through him; he never in a million years would have thought he would get this. Never even thought he deserved this. 

“We need to call Allison sometime,” Luther comments, and Diego knows what he’s thinking- knows the urge to get all of them that are able to be there back together. He nods, but doesn’t say anything. Some understandings just go without speaking. 

He settles back and watches his family, and can’t help but wonder how he came this far. 

* * *

As luck would have it, Allison comes to stay about a week later. She’s got some sort of part in an up and coming movie that’s filming in their town, and her husband and daughter come with her. 

She calls them up and talks to them, and Eudora hisses at Diego while he’s on the phone to offer to let them stay. So he does, albeit awkwardly, and she accepts, just as awkwardly. 

That awkwardness melts away when he calls the others. Allison, Patrick, and Claire, are met at the airport by a small swarm of family, Claire shrieking in delight when she sees Luther and immediately charging into his legs to hug him, before he’s even registered its him she’s headed for. 

“Of course he’s her favorite,” Diego grouches half-heartedly, mostly for the way Eudora playfully smacks his arm. Then he’s taking a few steps forwards to hug Allison, speaking gruffly to cover for the emotion in his voice. “It’s good to see you, you little shit.”

“Shit,” Darcy echoes, sounding delighted as always to be mimicking bad words. Claire, swinging off of one of Luther’s arms like he’s a jungle gym, bursts out laughing. 

“ _ Darcy Grace,”  _ Eudora scolds, and the toddler immediately looks embarrassed, shoving her face into Diego’s neck with a mumbled, “Sorry, Mommy.”

  
A moment later Allison is making grabby hands, insisting to meet her niece, who Darcy enthusiastically greets as  _ Auntie Allie.  _ Claire has moved from her spot in Luther’s arms to  _ demanding  _ a piggy back ride from whoever’s in earshot, and Diego’s starting to get a headache from the chaos. Hosting Allison’s family is going to be a circus, even if it’s just for long enough that they can rent an apartment for a couple months.    
  
He’s looking forwards to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello I hope you enjoyed this chapter of tooth rotting fluff :) I had to get Allison in there I could not wait any more
> 
> Next chapter: Cousin shenanigans, possible wedding planning, dealing with superpowered babies!
> 
> (submit ideas for claire's powers please i decided i want her to have them but can't pick one)


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